Screw-door safe.



UNITED STATESY PATENT OFFICE.

` CHARLES E. BLECI-ISCHMIDT, OF BELLEVUE, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNOR TO THE VICTOR SAFE AND LOCK COMPANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

'SCREW-Doon SAFE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Iietters Patent No. 629,764, dated August 1, 1899.

Application filed April 3, 1899. Serial No. 711,508. (No model.)

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. BLECH- SCHMIDT, acitizen of the United States, residing at Bellevue, in the county of Campbell and State of Kentucky, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Screw- Door Safes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specication.

'This invention relates to those safes havclosed are securely fastened by the automatic advance of a number of,v sliding bolts,- the retraction ofV the same at any-predetermined hour being automatically effected by a time lock; and my improvement comprises a novel combination Vof such self-acting bolt-operatlng mechanism.' Said mechanism includes an oscillating device pivoted to the inner side of the door, couplings that unite said device to the bolts, a spring for turning it in one direction, a time-lock connection for rotating it in an opposite direction, and a combined trip and stop that automatically liberates said oscillator and permits it to turn far 'enough by. the stress of said spring to advance said bolts, said liberating action being elfected by the contact 'of one member of said combined trip and stop with theouter end of a` female thread of the door-frame; but when the time-lock turns said oscillating device far enough to retract the bolts said member is at once freed from contact with said female thread, and then said combined trip and stop arrests said oscillator and holds it securely in its new position until the door is again closed, as hereinafter more fully described. l

In the accompanying drawings, Figure lis an elevation of the inner end of. a screw-door safe provided with my bolt-operating mechanism, the bolts thereof being advanced and their keepers andthe lower portion of`a'timelock case being sectioned. Fig. 2 is a similar elevation, but showing said bolts retracted, the time-lock case removed, and its position indicated by dotted lines. Fig. 3 is a vertical section through the upper part of the door, the combined trip and stop being shown ing screw-doors, which latter after being sitions.

in the same position as in Fig. 1. Fig. elisa similar section, but showing said tripand lstop in the same position` as in Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a greatly-enlarged section ofy the door, taken transversely of itsscrew-threads and in the plane of a push-stem constituting j the operating'member of the combinedftripzaud stop. c

The front wall A of the safe may be built up in any desired Way and has secured to it a ring B, which ring has a steeply-pitched female screw-thread C cut around its inner periphery to permit the engagement of a male thread D of a ring E, secured to the inner side of a door F, a portion ofthe latter being shown in Fig. 5. Again, the inner end .of this ring AE is grooved radially aty e to lguide the reciprocating bolts G, of which any desired number may be used, although in thepresent case four are shown. These bolts are cut away, as at g, l.to permit free play of angular links H, the outer ends of the latter being pivotedto said bolts, while their inner ends are coupled to the four arms of an oscillating spider I, pivoted t0 the door at i and held in its normal position against a stop f by-a spring J. (See Fig. 3.) By thus cutting away the inner ends of the bolts and connecting them to the oscillatorl` by means of the bent links H the bolt-operating mechanism is very compactly housed l'within the ,limited space afforded between the ring and the time-lock case. y

Projecting rearwardly from one of the spider-arms is a pin K, engaged with a shifterbar M of any preferred construction of time'- lock, the latter being securely housed within a case N. v

O is a transverse boreiin the door-ring E to admit a reciprocating push-stem P, whose outer end is beveled olf, as shown, while. its inner endis coupled to a short lever R, pivoted to the door at fr. S is a spring thatv maintains said stem and lever in their normal po- These devices P R S constitute the combined trip and stop above referred to,

b are keepers or socketsin the ringB to admit the bolts G when they are advanced, so.

contact will force said stem inward, the rev the pressure of spring J. Consequently the In arranging this `meehanism its various parts must be so disposed with reference to each other and to the end c of the outermost or front female thread C as to cause the final closing turning of the door in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 3 to bring the bolts G directly opposite the entrance of the keepers b the very moment the outer end ofl pushstem P contacts with said screw end c, and, bearing in mind that the lever R was previously impinging against one of the spiderarms I, as shown in Fig. 4, it is evident this sult being to swing said lever away from said arm. Consequently the spring J now turns the liberated spider I in such a direction as to simultaneously advance all the bolts and engage them with their respective keepers Z), thereby securely locking the screw-door. As soon, however, as the hour arrives for which the timer was set its bar M shifts over to the position indicated by the dotted line m in Fig. 2, and thus turns the spider I around far enough to withdraw all the bolts from their keepers and retain them in this retracted position until the bar is again intentionally restored to its normal place, as shown in Fig. l. The door is now unlocked, and as soon as it is turned a slight distance in the opening direction of the arrow shown in Fig. et the pushstem P escapes from contact with the female thread C, and then the spring S advances said stem, swings down the lever R, and causes it to impinge against the spider-arm I and prevents said spider being rotated backward by timer is relieved 4from the constant stress of said spring. In this arrested position of the spider the door can be screwed wide open and the timer be again set to go off at any hour before shutting said door.

From the above description it is evident the' bolts cannot be advanced until the door is shut and the screw run completely home, and then the locking is automatically eected and without employing special external devices.

The dotted line]l in Fig. 2 indicates a coiled spring that may be used instead of the platespring J for turning the oscillating spider in such a direction as to advance the bolts. Finally, by referring to Fig. l it will be noticed that the shifter-bar M has coupled to it two levers pivoted to the case N, thereby indicating that a pair of timers are used for operating said bar, and by thus employing two timelocks suiiicientforce is obtained to overcome the stress of the spring J and the friction incidental to the retraction of the various bolts G. Therefore there is no danger of the bolt mechanism failing to operate promptly at any predetermined hour.

I claim as my invention- In a safe, the front plate A, provided with a ring B, having keepers b, and female kthread C; the door F, provided with a ring E, having grooves e, and male thread D; the bolts G traversing said grooves; .theoscillating device I, having links H, jointed to said bolts; a spring that turns Said device in one direction; a timer connection for rotating it in an opposite direction; and a combined tri and stop consisting of the push-stem P, plvoted lever R r, and spring S, all combined tooper.- ate as herein described, and for the purpose stated.

In testimony whereof I afX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES E. BLECHSCIIMIDT.

l/Vitnesses:

J AMES H. LA YMAN, Jnssn M. SIMON. 

